A Walworth man has joined a gruelling 40,000 nautical mile, round-the-world voyage which he only began training for in November.
Paul Harwood is one of nine other Londoners who have signed up to ‘Clipper: Round the world’, a race that sees normal people trained to compete in the sort of challenge normally reserved for olympians.
He is joined by fellow South-Londoner, Danny Lee of Crystal Palace, who is racing all eight legs of the global route on board the Unicef team entry.
Currently battling waves on the race’s trans-pacific leg, from Port Luzon, Philippines to Seattle, USA, Paul Harewood said: “I have to say that this about the most difficult thing that I have ever done.”
“This is a racing boat and the work on board is physically and mentally demanding and the conditions are hard with sixteen people on board living in very close conditions – and often with the boat heeled over to 45 degrees.
“But the highlights are definitely worth it. We have gone from tropical heat to arctic cold, from storms in the Luzon Straits through a strange, becalmed fog filled with dragon flies off Taiwan, to racing a 30-knot tail wind and 10 metre waves in the North Pacific!
“There is nothing like surfing a 70-foot boat down a 10-metre wave as the sun gloriously rises over a grey sea at 45 degrees north as I did this morning (13 April)!”
So vast is the North Pacific that, at times, the crew’s closest humans have been the astronauts in the International Space Station, 248 miles above Earth’s surface.
‘Clipper: Round the World’ provides ordinary people – taxi drivers, doctors and nurses – with expert training and quality equipment before they embark on the trip.
Paul Harewood, who normally works in software, has completed Royal Yacht Association-approved training and the bespoke Clipper Race Advanced Safety Course certificate.
The race was cancelled in March 2020 when Covid-19 meant crews couldn’t dock at Chinese ports, but two years later, on the 24th March 2022, the teams set sail once again.
Manning ‘Dare To Lead’, a 70-foot racing yacht, Paul will soon land in Seattle before setting co-ordinates for Panama, Port Bermuda, New York, Derry, before a final sprint to London in August.
Keep track of the teams’ progress at: www.clipperroundtheoworld.com